March 26, 2004
Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-4769)
RELEASE: SS04-02
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT
The oxygen-producing Elektron unit aboard the Space Station continues
to function well, as it has since it was restarted early last
Saturday. Expedition 8 Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer
Alexander Kaleri spent two days last week replacing a liquids unit
and a water flow system of the Russian Elektron, in the Zvezda
Service Module. The Elektron separates water into oxygen and
hydrogen. The oxygen is used in the Station's atmosphere, while the
hydrogen is vented over board.
The Elektron had shut down repeatedly after only brief periods of
operation during the past several weeks. In the meantime, the crew
used oxygen and air from the Progress cargo vehicle docked at the
Station to replenish the atmosphere, as well as Solid Fuel Oxygen
Generation (SFOG) canisters. Each canister can supply the oxygen
needs of one crewmember for one day.
Thirteen SFOGs were used during the week before the Elektron was
repaired and activated. More than 100 SFOGs remain on board, and two
high-pressure tanks on the Station's Quest airlock contain a supply
of oxygen that could last several months if needed.
With the Elektron running smoothly, Foale and Kaleri devoted much of
the week to science activities. Kaleri tended the Rasteniya
experiment, a greenhouse containing peas, designed to see how plants
grow in a microgravity environment. Kaleri also did a test of the
Russian TORU manual docking system, using the Station Progress 13
vehicle docked to Zvezda. That Progress will be undocked, and it will
burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in mid-May, the day before a new
Progress arrives with about two-and-a-half tons of equipment,
supplies, water and fuel.
Foale worked with the Miscible Fluids in Microgravity (MFMG)
experiment. It involves injecting honey into a water container to see
how the two combine in weightlessness. He also worked with the Pore
Formation and Mobility Investigation, melting a transparent material
in the Microgravity Science Glovebox to observe the formation and
interaction of bubbles in the material. The experiment could help in
prevention of bubble formation during such processes, perhaps
resulting in stronger materials.
Foale also set up the hardware for the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test 3
(BCAT-3) experiment. BCAT-3 studies the behavior of tiny particles
suspended in fluid. On Earth, gravity causes colloids to separate,
causing sedimentation. The Station's microgravity environment gives
researchers a chance to study the complex fluids without this effect.
On Monday and Tuesday, both crewmembers wore acoustic dosimeters for
about eight hours as part of regularly scheduled tests of the
Station's noise levels. For the last half of both days, they removed
the dosimeters and set them up in stationary locations.
On Tuesday, both crewmembers talked with students at Mill Middle
School in Williamsville, N.Y.
Today Foale and Kaleri did a periodic, detailed inspection of one of
two U.S. spacesuits on the Station. The other is not scheduled for
inspection for several months.
Information about crew activities is available on the Internet at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/
Details about Station science operations is available on the Internet,
at:
http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/
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